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Welcome to the Winchester Clio Tour.  Clio allows you to explore fun and historic destination using any digital device.  Just click on an entry and explore our town's amazing histories.  Please enjoy all the themed tours and join us in preserving our history for future generations.

When the Turtle Lake Lumber Company built its company town they named it after its main investor, Walter* Winchester. The lumber company had this building built and hired staff for it around 1910. Prior to this, taught by Anna Buck at the Divide Resort from about 1902 until the school opened. The school provided an education to area children in grades first through eighth. One room was for grades first through fourth and the other was fifth through eighth. For further education, students needed to travel to Mercer, Minocqua, Ironwood or Wausau. The school property exchanged hands a few times after the Lumber Company Sold off its assets and was eventually donated to the town. In 1940 the school near Birch Lake closed, leaving the Winchester Schoolhouse the only functioning school in town. The Winchester Public School continued to function into the mid 1960’s when school consolidation occurred. Once the school closed, the town found other uses for the building. It was used as a community center, storage and even an ambulance garage. In 1986 a committee was formed to turn the building into a public library. In 2015 renovations were done to restore the original schoolhouse aesthetic. This effort done by a mix of private contractors and volunteers, some of whom were former students. Today it still functions as a library and community center. The library provides educational events for residents of all ages and is the center of the local historical preservation effort. Winchester residents, both seasonal and permanent attest to this building being the heart of its community for over 110 years. Known teachers here included; Bertha Adkins(Principle Circa 1917), Mrs. McDonald (1920-1922), Jess Laundrie (circa 1938), Mrs. Dodge (1959-1960), Mr. Balstad (1963), Mrs. Carrow (1961-1966), Mr. Armstrong (1963-1966) and Mr. Engle(1940-1953).

The Winchester School was built around 1910 by the Turtle Lake Lumber Company for the benefit of their employee’s children. All materials for the building were harvested and milled locally by the lumber company. The building has two rooms, one was for the older student class room and the other for younger the school also had an outhouse behind it. It was used for over 50 years before it closed.

Winchester Library- Former Winchester State Grade School

Mr. and Mrs. M. J. Plunkett homesteaded their farm near Manitowish, beginning in 1891 when Iron County was part of Ashland County. They originally were from Quebec and arrived in Manitowish through Eau Claire, Wisconsin. The farm was a subsistence farm, and Matt supplemented his income as a timber cruiser and woodsman. They had four children, three sons and a daughter. Matt died in 1904, and Mrs. Plunkett passed away in 1931. The daughter married E. Wysocki and raised potatoes near what is today Manitowish Waters. Some of the sons continued on the homestead after the death of their parents.During the early years of Manitowish, young people managed to lead a great social life by entertaining groups at various homes. Sleigh rides and skating parties were frequent outings. After a brisk sleigh ride, young people as well as their parents enjoyed card games by the warm woodstoves necessary for a cozy home during the winter. Picnics were a group gathering in warmer weather. The Plunkett’s home seemed to be a popular place for gatherings. By 1912, some of the Plunkett children were attending dances. Many of the dances were held at homes or a section house, a community gathering place likely near the Manitowish railroad station, as well. Many young men of the Northwoods heard the call to enter World War I. In 1917, James Plunkett and Tom LaFave enlisted in the 10th Engineer Corps, Co. 23 of Jefferson Barracks and were transferred to Washington D.C.  By the 1920s, Matt Plunkett, Jr. entered local politics, and in 1922 and 1927, newspaper accounts show Matt Plunkett, Jr. serving as assessor for the Manitowish Township. In 1930, there were no candidates for county surveyor in Manitowish Township, and 121 people wrote in a name, and 77 people voted for Matt Plunkett, Jr. for the position. On August 2, 1930, toward midnight, the Plunkett farm became a refuge for Oscar Hanke, the operator of the soft drink parlor at the Rest Lake Dam. He was shot three times by unknown assailants who fled the scene and left Hanke to fend for himself. Wounded and bleeding, Hanke walked to the farm, and one of the Plunketts rushed him by automobile to Runstrom Hospital in Ironwood, Michigan. In 1937, one of the Plunkett sons and his wife escaped fate when they hit a car that was stopped in the middle of the highway with no lights on. It was not a clear night, and they never saw the car until they slammed into it near Pine Lake while returning to their farm. Both had to go to the hospital and suffered severe bruises and cuts. The driver of the other car was drunk, and the car had stalled on the highway.During the 1940s, tragedy hit the family homestead. In 1942, the Mercer Fire Department was called to control a fire at the Plunkett farm in which a tool shed and icehouse burned. The family pulled together and recovered their losses. They also saw the need for more tourist accommodations and began the Plunkett Resort. By 1945, the Plunkett Resort acquired a telephone line to their Resort.

By Kay KransEarly on, it became a necessity for families to create subsistence farms in northern Wisconsin. The Plunketts were early pioneers and had a young family to raise. They needed food for the family, and supplies were not readily available without traveling a long way by horse and wagon. While Matt Plunkett worked in the lumber camps during the winter, his wife and children needed a store of food and wood to keep them safe.

Plunkett Farm

The Turtle Lake Lumber Company chose to name its company town after their principal investor, Walter Winchester. Mr. Winchester was known as a very kind and orderly man, often referred to as “The Man With the Shiny Shoes” due to his tidy appearance. The Company Town that bore his name had very similar qualities. Boardwalks were built connecting all the houses so people could stay out of the dust and mud. A beautiful two room schoolhouse was built for the education of the local children. Raised runways allowed timber to be stored stories high, out of the snow and mud. Over fifty company houses were built in neat six square blocks. Over time multiple boarding houses operated for those that could afford it as well. People who could not afford permanent housing or a room at a boarding house could stay in “Tar Town”, now the Town Park. People there lived out of tents and simple shelters made out of tar paper and scrap wood. Native American seasonal workers were employed to scrape bark off of logs, they camped on the hill next to where the lumber was stored. A Community Building was also erected and served as a town meeting place, polling place, dance hall, event center, barber shop, ice-cream parlor and tavern before eventually burning down. Mobile horse stalls in the form of modified box cars ensured the ability to care for and move horses anywhere. Everything was painted white per Mr. Winchesters wishes. Each house came with a set of tools so the residents could do their own up keep and an apple tree to provide food for either people or livestock. A company store provided for all their other needs. At one point it was known as the most picturesque Lumber Town in Wisconsin. At its peak, the company town of Winchester boosted over 500 men working in the mills and camps, their families, a few railroad employees and multiple farms.Railroad bridges crossed South Turtle Lake in two places, a foot path existed between North and South Turtle Lake and another Rail Bridge crossed the creek connecting North Turtle Lake and Rock Lake. There was also a rail line running south west to Mercer. Railroad tracks serving the Mill ran across south Turtle Lake and along the western shore where most the buildings were. The main mill was located across from the northernmost island in south turtle lake. Power was supplied with a steam engine, housed in a building rightly named “The Engine Room”. The town was supplied with power from 8am to 8pm every day. To let people know the power was going out the conductor of the engine room would dim the lights a bit before 8pm to give people a warning. When someone gave birth or died, it would also be communicated with the lighting. One flicker meant someone died, two meant someone was born. Excess steam from the engine room would be pumped through a pipe into the lake creating a hot pond between the shore and island through which logs could be stored year-round. A giant coal stack was in the center of the mill site towering over the area. Wood and coal smoke was prevalent in Winchester from the operations at the mill and hearth/wood stoves in town.The Company Town was not meant to be a permanent sustainable community. Investors made decisions based on profit and available resources. When the available resource had dwindled to the point that it was no longer profitable to sustain the saw mill it was shut down. The day this happened was celebrated as the progress of man. This happened to Winchester in 1926. The town threw a parade through the streets and people came out of their homes to cheer and bang pots and pans when the last piece of lumber was milled. The Investors of Turtle Lake Lumber Company also owned the Presque Isle Mill and no longer felt having two large operations so close together was good for the bottom line and decided the Turtle Lake mill would be the one to close.

The Turtle Lake Lumber Company named their company town after their principle investor, Walter Winchester. When the mill closed the economy revert back to tourism, but lasting impacts on the land, water and people remain. The Stueben Outdoor Company bought much of the property and describe Winchester as follows in their brochure. “Winchester is in the Manitowish Country, right in the heart of the big north woods and this location was chosen because a chain of lakes, streams and rivers led right up to it. Winchester was a lumber mill town and water was the means of transportation.As great trees were felled and their branches lopped off they were floated down to the chutes of the mills of Winchester where they were sawed into boards and shipped to lumber markets.”

Winchester circa mid 1920s- early 1930s. Coal stack is the tall building in the center background. Probably taken were 3rd Street rounds a corner and turns into Townsite Road. 

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